Noticias

“America: The Motion Picture” gives George Washington chainsaw arms. As far as historical rewrites go, that’s not nothing. If the cherry tree story was always fiction — not to mention scores of other anecdotes about historical figures that have morphed their way into conventional understanding about the Great Men of History — then why not tell a nonsensical version of 1776 that involves mechanized weapon limbs?

That’s about as close to making a salient point as this movie gets. For those watching who consider anything other than reverence of the Founders to be insufficient, this will not be their cup of Boston Lager. For others looking for an insightful takedown of the mythologizing of American history, there’s not much for them to find, either. , often only slightly more ambitious than that commercial where ol’ Gw drives a Dodge Challenger with a Hemi engine. Most of the time, it’s knowingly stupid,...

Today sees the latest film from director Wes Anderson, "Moonrise Kingdom," hit theaters, and consistent with the music-obsessed filmmaker's work, it's as much a treat for the ears as it is for the eyes. 'Moonrise' boasts another soundtrack of unexpected cuts assembled with the great music supervisor Randall Poster, including Francoise Hardy, Hank Williams, and for the first time, a significant amount of classical music including Benjamin Britten and Leonard Bernstein. And if that's not enough, there's also additional pieces by Alexandre Desplat and drum percussion by old musical cohort Mark Mothersbaugh.

But as is the case with most films, not everything's on the official soundtrack release, which is in stores now: the movie features three additional Hank Williams songs, and pieces by Mozart and Schubert that aren't included on the disc. Given that Anderson's films are so replete with music, the soundtracks have quite often left out key songs for licensing or other reasons,...

Directors who plug their favorite songs into films is nothing new, but Wes Anderson is one of the few -- along with Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Cameron Crowe -- who have turned the movie soundtrack into an art form.

From the underappreciated Rolling Stones song "2000 Man" in Anderson's debut feature "Bottle Rocket" to a Brazilian acoustic guitarist playing David Bowie tunes in the oceanography adventure movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," Anderson's musical choices for his films are as patiently awaited by his fans as the films themselves.

Though the tweed-stylin' director has stated that his new movie, "Moonrise Kingdom" (which opens May 25), "has a big musical element, but there are not really songs in it," his previous films are a master class in how to use songs in movies. Here are 11 of our favorites.

'2000 Man,' The Rolling Stones ('Bottle Rocket,'...

Does the success of Trent Reznor, Clint Mansell and Mark Mothersbaugh suggest that the days of the orchestral soundtrack are numbered?

Two words said it all. Moments after winning a Golden Globe for his score for The Social Network last year, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor tweeted "Holy shit!" Industrial rock singers aren't in the habit of winning Golden Globes for film scores, and certainly not their first one. But the landscape has changed in recent years – and is still doing so, fast. Two cinema releases this week alone have had their scores composed by singers: Sigur Rós' Jónsi has done the honours on Cameron Crowe's We Bought A Zoo, while Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh is responsible for 21 Jump Street.

This is not an entirely new phenomenon: notably, Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler hit big with 1983's Local Hero, and Tim Burton changed Danny Elfman's life...

In this week's Music in the Movies, we pick out ten of cinema's finest non-score soundtracks...

Having focused mainly on scores in this column, I thought I’d turn my attention to soundtracks that consist mainly of sourced material. I've chose some of my favourites, and also asked some Den of Geek 's writers to suggest a few choices of their own. And just to make the list a little more balanced, I've made sure to only choose one film per director...

A Life Less Ordinary

Nominated by N P Horton

I originally intended to include Trainspotting in this article, but I decided to ask my followers on Twitter (comprising largely of DoG writers) to nominate their favourite scores, and this was Mr Horton’s. So given that I wanted to include only one film per filmmaker, out went Trainspotting, and in came A Life Less Ordinary.

Ash’s titular...